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Companies and trade groups that have donated to Rep. Tom Price’s campaign funds have major financial stakes in the decisions that he will oversee if confirmed as the next Health and Human Services secretary. Among the contributors to Price is a maker of placenta-based wound care products that’s in open conflict with a rival over Food and Drug Administration regulations. Based about a dozen miles from the Georgia Republican’s district office, MiMedx Group Inc. stands out among Price’s contributors for giving big money relative to its size. MiMedx donated $21,800 in the 2015-2016 campaign cycle to Price's campaign funds, according to a tally by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, putting it just behind the American Medical Association’s $22,000 contribution to the lawmaker's combined political accounts. (Young, 12/9)

In picking Tom Price to be secretary of Health and Human Services, Donald Trump has chosen an orthopedic surgeon who in his congressional career, has loyally promoted the interests of the medical profession — its freedom and importantly, its financial interests. A conservative representing Georgia’s 6th District, Price sponsored a 2015 bill that would restrict efforts to reduce doctor payments for medical services. He cosponsored another 2011 bill that would have limited reports used by hospitals and regulators to perform background checks used to screen doctors before hiring them. (Jewett and Taylor, 12/12)

Prospective Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, currently the chairman of the House Budget Committee, brings a distinctive to-do list to the agency.  And, if confirmed by the Senate, he will have tremendous independent power to get things done. While he will report to the president, heads of major agencies like HHS — with a budget of more than $1 trillion for the current fiscal year — can interpret laws in different ways than their predecessors, and rewrite regulations and guidance, which is how many important policies are actually carried out. (Rovner, 12/9)

If the Trump team wanted to win passionate support for Dr. Scott Gottlieb to serve as FDA chief, they couldn’t have devised a better strategy than to float the name of another leading candidate: Jim O’Neill. Earlier this week, sources close to the Trump transition team said they were considering O’Neill, the managing director of an investment fund run by Peter Thiel, the billionaire Trump donor. (Kaplan, 12/9)

The director of the National Institutes of Health said Friday that it would be a “privilege” to remain in that post if asked to stay by President-elect Donald Trump. “I’m somebody who believes in public service,” Dr. Francis Collins said in an interview with STAT. “If I were asked to stay on, I would consider it a privilege to do so. We have a mission and a vision that is captivating, yeah, I want to be part of that.” Collins said he had not yet been asked to stay. He said that if that call did not come, he would would likely return to the NIH lab he previously led, not far from his current headquarters on the campus in Bethesda, Md. (Scott and Kaplan, 12/9)